Astrantia.] XXXV. UMBELLIFERJE. 179 



with pink. Flowers small, mostly unisexual, the calyx-border campanu- 

 late, with 5 teeth about the length of the petals. 



In woods and pastures, in cc ntral and southern Europe, not nearer 

 to Britain than central France, Occurs apparently wild in Stokesay 

 Wood, near Ludlow, and between Whitbourne and Malvern in Hereford- 

 shire ; probably originally escaped from some old cottage -garden. Fl. 

 summer. 



IV. ERYNGIUM. ERYNGO. 



Stiff, hard herbs, usually perennial, and with very prickly leaves and 

 involucres. Flowers in a compact spike or head, with a scale or bract 

 on the common receptacle under each flower. Petals erect, with a 

 long inflected point. Fruit ovoid, without vittas, crowned by the 

 pointed or prickly teeth of the calyx. 



A rather numerous and very natural genus, spread over the greater 

 part of the temperate and warm regions of the globe. In many species 

 the whole of the upper part of the plant as well as the flowers acquire 

 a bluish or white tint, on which account several exotic species have 

 been frequently cultivated in our gardens. 



Radical leaves rounded, the lobes plaited and toothed. Scales of 



the receptacle 3-lobed 1. E. maritimum. 



Leaves pinnately divided, the lobes pinnatifld and toothed. Scales 



of the receptacle entire 2. E. campestre. 



1. E. maritimum, Linn. (fig. 401). Sea Eryngo, Sea Holly. — A stiff, 

 erect, much branched plant, nearly a foot high, quite glabrous, and 

 glaucous or bluish. Leaves very stiff, broad and sinuate, more or less 

 divided into 3 broad, short lobes, elegantly veined, and bordered by 

 coarse prickly teeth ; the radical ones stalked ; the others clasping the 

 stem by their broad bases. Heads of flowers nearly globular, of a pale 

 blue, with an involucre of 5 to 8 leaves, like those of the stem, but 

 much smaller and narrower, the bracts within the head divided into 3 

 spines. 



On the sea-coasts of the whole of Europe and western Asia, except the 

 extreme north. Abundant on the maritime sands of England, Ireland, 

 and in Scotland from Aberdeenshire and Argyleshire southward. Fl. 

 summer, rather late, 



3. E. campestre, Linn. (fig. 402). Field Eryngo. — Stems not so 

 thick, and more branched than in E. maritimum, the leaves much more 

 divided ; the segments pinnate, with lanceolate lobes, waved and coarsely 

 toothed, bordered and terminated by strong prickles. Heads of flowers 

 more numerous and smaller ; the involucre leaves more or less pinnately 

 toothed; the scales or bracts within the heads narrow, and mostly 

 entire. 



In fields, waste places and roadsides, in central and southern Europe, 

 extending eastward to the Caucasus and Ural, and northward to Den- 

 mark. Rare in Britain, and believed to be an introduced plant ; among 

 several stations formerly given, it is now only known near Plymouth, 

 on the ballast hills of the Tyne, and near Waterford, in Ireland. Fl. 

 summer. 



